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Monthly Archives: March 2017

You’re planning on buying your very first home in the near future. You have heard of a promise to purchase (formerly known as an offer to purchase) and you are wondering what its purpose is. Here are the main details.

The promise to purchase is the result of a series of exchanges and promises between the future home buyer and the current homeowner. All the details are written down in this document. The promise to purchase is an agreement, which defines the ground rules between the two parties. If conditions are set forth, the deadlines should be clearly stated and the parties undertake to fulfill them.

The promise to purchase is an important document because, as the title states, you commit to buy the property, but under certain conditions set forth on either side. These conditions are laid down in writing in this document.

The promise to purchase is the step that comes right before the deed of sale, which is the famous contract that officially declares you the owner of the coveted house. Just about every detail written down in the promise to purchase will be found in the deed of sale. The content is very similar. Continue reading →

The title might surprise you, but it’s the truth. Just a touch of black can make any spring colour, like yellow and green, pop in a room thanks to the magic of contrast. See how.

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Even a hint of black can improve the look of any room by providing more depth to the dominating colour. Orange, yellow and pink are all the more vivid when paired with black.

Others will say, on the contrary, that a touch of black will tone down any overbearing colour. It helps to soothe plenty of bold colours that can be irritating over time. It’s a fact. Black will mellow down any colour proclaiming to be overpowering.

This trace of black can be a trim molding halfway up the wall or a crown molding, a door, an entire staircase or parts of it, the woodwork, a curtain, the upholstery fabric, the ceiling beams, the den, a lampshade, a wrought-iron structure, a strip of wallpaper or a screen. Continue reading →

Spring is in the air, which means peak home buying season is just around the corner. So Desjardins is offering an attractive fixed mortgage rate, $1,000 cash back and all the insurance you need for your home under a single roof.

One young couple recently discovered the benefits of choosing Desjardins for their home-buying needs and couldn’t believe their luck. “I’ve been a caisse member since I was a kid, but I never realized just how much they offered!” said Karim after his mortgage was approved. “We decided to look around and wound up falling in love with the first condo we visited—a little 5 1/2 near the canal. We weren’t ready and had to scramble to get our offer in. We talked to our advisor and looked at all our options to find the mortgage that was right for us. It was really stressful. And we thought we’d have to do the same thing over again for our home insurance and loan insurance. But Desjardins offered all the services we needed to buy our home. It was so easy!”

His wife Julie nodded. “The fixed promotional rate we got is incredible. And the $1,000 cashback offer really helped us out: We used it to buy the perfect couch!” Continue reading →

Spring is on our doorstep. For many of you, it’s the final race to buy that first home. In fact, why not make your last-minute rush a little less stressful by calling a real estate broker. It comes with a long list of advantages. Here are the major ones.

If time is of the essence, the real estate broker will be more than welcome. Not only will the real estate professional deal with the bulk of the work, but he or she will also work at a fast pace without skipping any steps.

First buyers usually have two common concerns: a possible budget overrun and buying a home with latent defects, which would implicate unforeseen renovation work and maybe even legal complications. Again, the real estate broker is there to assist first buyers and give them the proper advice to minimize those risks.

The real estate broker also helps first buyers to better manage their stress and avoid a ton of pitfalls, such as hasty decisions causing devastating consequences, poor knowledge of the laws and regulations or a lack of communication with the coveted house’s current owner. Continue reading →